


What Are You Afraid Of?

by fragilenights



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 22:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14902988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilenights/pseuds/fragilenights
Summary: "Stop that! My hands are dirty.""My hands are dirty too. What are you afraid of?""Afraid?""You're trembling, Eds.""I'm not trembling.""You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life."





	What Are You Afraid Of?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a period of civil war.  
> Rebel spaceships, striking  
> from a hidden base, have won  
> their first victory against  
> the evil Galactic Empire.
> 
> During the battle, Rebel  
> spies managed to steal secret  
> plans to the Empire's  
> ultimate weapon, the DEATH  
> STAR, an armored space  
> station with enough power  
> to destroy an entire planet.
> 
> Pursued by the Empire's  
> sinister agents, Prince  
> Eddie races home aboard his  
> starship, custodian of the  
> stolen plans that can save his  
> people and restore  
> freedom to the galaxy....

The halls of the Tantive IV are filled with the nervous energy of the rebel guards, prepared to protect the royalty on board from the anticipated attack of The Empire. Everyone knows how important it is to safely return the prince to the rebel alliance. Not only is he extremely valuable in the war, but the information he carries is even more detrimental to the war's outcome.

Suddenly the ship seems to shake to life as the doors of the ship explode upwards, allowing a strew of stormtroopers to fight their way in. Prince Eddie is overwhelmed with the high pitched screeching of the blasters while he rushes to safety in the ship. An R2 unit rounds the corner and Eddie pulls it into his brief shelter on the ship. Eddie understands that keeping the plans on him puts not only his self at more risk, but also completely risks the mission that this was all for. 

Eddie quickly transfers the data over to the droid and requests that the droid let him record a message that will grant the alliance with the only hope left. 

The sound of another droid rounding the corner, in search of the R2 unit, alerts Eddie of the urgency of his current actions. He quickly finalizes the data transfer and rushes off to hide and get away from the detrimental information that must be passed on. Eddie is not going to let his own mistakes let down the rebel alliance. The droids wander off, and Eddie can't help but pray that the mission will at least be completed without him. 

The prince hides with his whole body shaking, but he has faith in himself. He holds his blaster proudly in his hands as he maneuvers around the ship, trying his best to avoid the fleet of stormtroopers in search of him and the plans. Eddie loves the rush of adrenaline he gets from being involved first hand in these missions.

Prince Eddie lived a large portion of his life under the overbearing eyes of his adoptive parents, the members of the Senate, and the people in his kingdom. Eddie always felt that he had to live up to this expectation of being the polite, obedient prince that went along with everything. Eddie wants to be so much more than that. He's always felt an urge to be more and do more. Something has always pushed at the back of his mind, telling him that he has so much more potential than anyone could imagine. Eddie has tried to reach out of his confines of royalty with his involvement in the rebel alliance, but the constraints of his mother always lure him back in before he can get himself into too much trouble. 

The voice of a stormtrooper shakes Eddie from his thoughts of freedom and individuality, as he sprints around the corner. Suddenly his whole body goes limp with a sudden wave of dull pain, as he is hit with a stun blast. 

Eddie wakes to some troopers dragging his limp body down the halls of the ship with his hands bound together. Eddie understands where he is wanted and who he will have to face once he gets there, so he begins to fight back against the stormtroopers who have a tight grip on his upper arms. Eddie does his best to struggle his way away from them, but he is suddenly face to face with the devil himself, Darth Vader.

Eddie's anger is apparent as he rushingly addresses the man, "Darth Vader. Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a-" 

"Don't act so surprised, Your Highness. You weren't on any mercy mission after all. Several transmissions were beamed up to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you," Vader aggressively interrupts.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan!"

"You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! Take him away!"

Eddie tried his best to act his way out of the situation, but Vader knows more than he expected. As he is dragged to a detention cell, Eddie just hopes that those droids escaped the grasp of the Empire. 

 

* * *

 

Richie Tozier understands that these two men are outsiders who don't really fit into the Cantina's environment, but god do they annoy him. He can even tell by Chewbacca's insistent mumbling that he isn't too fond of the strangers either. The shaggy haired kid, named Bill or something, just won't stop whining. The older man who is a bit too full of himself seems like he's into that hippy force shit, which makes Richie not want to get involved even more. But Richie also understands that these two men want something, and that means that he would get something in return.

Just to be clear, Richie isn't a selfish man, he just knows how to play his cards right. He understands how to get by in life, and he's going to make the best out of his skill of swindling. Richie was taught at a very young age how to find loop holes and magically come out of any deal with what he wanted, even if some illegal actions were involved, which they frequently were. As a young adult, Richie has grown to accept nothing less than what he wants. Right now, he does not want to spend anymore time with this kid, but he also thinks he can easily trick this old man into giving him way more money than necessary. 

"Ten-thousand?" Bill gripes, "We could almost buy our own ship for that."

Richie leans forward in his chair, ready to remind this kid that he was the one doing them a favor, "But who's going to fly it, kid? You?"

"You bet I could. I'm not such a bad pilot myself," Bill defended, rising from his seat. This is the last straw for Richie. He understands that the kid is impatient and full of himself, but Richie knows he's one of the only people in this galaxy that can fly his ship with such expertise. Bill claiming that flying was so easy is like a jab in Richie's soul. Being a pilot is a skill that some people have to work very hard for and give up a lot, Richie would know, and wasn't something this kid could just master in one day. 

The older man pulls Bill back down to his seat, and makes an offer with Richie that makes spending more time with Bill seem bearable. 

"Seventeen, huh?" The older man nods wisely in response to Richie's question, "Okay, you guys've got yourself a ship."

 

* * *

  

The fluorescent lighting streaming from the grated ceiling is the only thing that keeps Eddie sane in his dark detention cell. Eddie is a very anxious person, but no matter how nervous he gets in situations, he always feels this hidden strength from within. There is always a sense that he isn't alone, and that he will never truly suffer alone. There is always a sense of security deep within, no matter how utterly lonely and terrified he is in reality. Eddie was always told as a child that he was vulnerable and needed to take extra precautions to avoid the hands of danger. He understands that his place in the Senate makes him more susceptible to abuse, but Eddie always knows that he will be okay. Now this isn't some false sense of grandiosity, Eddie knows he has more potential than anyone expects. He has faith in himself when nobody else does. 

As the sound of echoing footsteps are heard outside of his chamber, Eddie's pounding heart seems to quicken to match their pace. Darth Vader glides into the room after some guards.

"And now, Your Highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base."

An IT-O Interrogation Unit hovers in after Vader, yielding a long needle that makes Eddie's heart almost burst in his chest. But Eddie keeps his cool. He gazes up at Vader and glares at the man in the mask, refusing to show any sign of weakness to the enemy. Eddie tries to shuffle away from the bot, but the unit has set him as the target and refuses to sway from its orders. 

The guards grab ahold of the prince and steady him in front of the needle as the bot edges towards him. Eddie curses at the guards and tries to struggle from their grip, but nevertheless fails and is met with the sharp prick of a needle on his neck. Eddie feels the serum run through his veins and his vision begins to go blurry. Everything around him is moving too slow and too fast all at once and he can't seem to fully concentrate on his own existence. The room begins to lean and sway and Eddie begins to panic. He shifts his body towards the far corner of his stone bed and pulls his legs to his chest for a sense of comfort. Vader edges towards the young prince and surprises everyone with a lighthearted tone. 

"Now, Eddie I have a couple little questions for you, if you don't mind." Eddie tries to shake his head and mumble out a refusal, but he can't seem to form words in this state. "I was just wondering if you possibly knew where the location of the rebel base is?" Vader sits down next to the prince and rests his hand on Eddie's knee when Eddie tries to fight off the question.

"I-I...I c-can't," Eddie manages to mutter. Vader leans in his body closer and tries to act in a comforting manner, but Eddie can sense that there is no sincerity in his actions.

"Yes, you can. You can trust me, Your Highness, I am one with the rebellion. I am on your side," Vader lies through his teeth. Even though Eddie is heavily under the influence of the interrogation drug, he knows that Vader is using his state as a method of manipulating his mind. Through all of the fuzz of his brain, Eddie still feels that sense of belonging and comfort gnawing in the back of his head. The sensation grounds him to the reality of the situation and to Vader's lies. 

Vader senses Eddie's hesitance and realizes that the boy is stronger than he thought. Eddie has some odd ability to act against the interrogation serum that Darth Vader was not expecting. 

"Eddie, it's me, you father. My Name is Bail Kaspbrak. I'm one of the senators of Alderaan. I adopted you when you were just a baby. I need you to remind me where the rebel base is. You know that your dear father's memory is beginning to go a bit as I age. I need you to tell me, son."

Eddie responds with a rush of refusals. His brain coaxing him to refuse to apparent image of his adoptive father. 

"If you aren't going to cooperate, we are going to have to do this the hard way," Vader threatens. "Eddie, you are feeling excruciating pain. A whole universe of pain. You body is engulfed in flames and pain is the only feeling you've ever known." 

Eddie cries out in agony as all of his nerve endings light up in mind-numbing pain. He moans for the pain to stop, but Vader continues to command Eddie into a delusion of hurt. But through all of this torture, Eddie remains strong and refuses to give up the location in question. The inner security stays with him, and he is able to resist Darth Vader's mind tricks. The pain eventually becomes too much and Eddie feels the room around him become dark as his body is overcome with the burning sear of pain. 

 

* * *

 

"What the fuck did you guys get me into?" Richie exclaims as the Millennium Falcon is pulled into a boarding dock of the Death Star. He can't help but beat himself up for jumping at the chance at this so-called easy deal. Richie knew that he was impulsive and occasionally materialistic, but it had been a while since he fucked himself over this bad. 

"Don't fret, I have a plan," the wiser man says from the entrance of the cockpit. Richie recently figured out that the man was named Michael Hanlon. He is supposedly a Jedi master, but Richie doubts the authenticity in that claim. Richie also was told that Michael is about the same age as himself, he just holds himself in such a mature attitude that Richie has never possessed in his twenty-five years. The stress wrinkles on Mike's face probably don't help the false age that people presume of him, but Richie can definitely tell that Mike knows more about the world than Bill did. 

As the ship landed on the dock, the men all hurry to hide underneath the floor compartments in the main hall of the Falcon. The men all hold their breaths as they hear the troopers approaching and walking above their heads. When all activity seems to halt aboard the ship, they all leave their spot in the secret compartments, and Mike continues with his plan.

Troopers enter the ship with a plan of scanning the place but as soon as they enter, the men take them down. Mike impersonates a trooper and hollers for the remaining stormtroopers, who are guarding the entrance, to come lend the others a hand. Once they have taken down all of the troopers, Richie and Bill quickly work to steal the uniforms off of two of the troopers and disguise themselves. The two impersonators lead Mike and Chewie to the overlooking security room for the dock. 

When the door raises open, Chewbacca lets out a threatening howl as Richie works quickly to blast the guards into silence. 

Bill closes the door behind them, removes his helmet, and protests, "You know, between his howling and your blasting-everything-in-sight it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here."

Richie removes his helmet to reveal a pointed look and says, "Bring 'em on. I prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin' around."

The droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, are quick to scour the databases in search of a way to allow the Millennium Falcon to take flight once again. C-3PO acts as a translator for the R2 unit and explains that they have located the power beam that is containing the ship within the station. Mike decides that he needs to shut down one of the terminals on his own. 

As Mike leaves the room, he speaks in a low, reassuring tone, "Be patient, Bill. Stay and watch over the droids. They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer. Your destiny lies along a different path from mine. The force will be with you. Always."

With that Mike runs out of the room and Bill solemnly closes the door after him. Chewie grumbles to Richie, and Richie seems to agree with the wookie. 

"Why you said it, Chewie. Where did you dig up that ole hippie?"

"Mike is a great man!"

"Yeah, great at getting us into trouble," Richie mutters and the two continue to bicker until they are interrupted by a commotion coming from the two droids.

C-3PO translates for the smaller droid, "R2 says that he's here and he found him."

Bill jumps out of his seat at the news, "Who's here? Who did he find?"

"Prince Edward."

Bill's eyes grow to the size of saucers as he hurriedly asks, "The prince? He's here? Where is he?"

Richie looks confused between Bill and the droids as he wonders aloud, "Prince? A Prince? What's going on?" 

R2-D2 quickly searches the database and C-3PO reports, "Level Five Detention Block AA23. I'm afraid he's scheduled to be terminated"

Bill jumps to life, "Oh no! We have to do something!"

"What are you talking about?" Richie asks, not quite mirroring Bill's attitude.

"The droids belong to him. He's the one in the message. We have to help him!" Bill explains.

Richie lounges back in one of the guards chairs and makes it clear that he has no interest in getting into any more trouble, "Now look, don't get any funny ideas. The ole man wants us to wait right here."

"But he didn't know the prince was here," Bill exclaims. He turns to the droids and quietly mutters, "Let's just find a way into the detention block."

"Look kid, I know that you think the prince is going to think of you as some big hero and you might finally get laid, but I'm not going anywhere. I can help you get fucked some other time, but not with so much on the line," Richie condescendingly jokes.

"They're going to execute him! Look a few minutes ago you said you didn't want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay?"

"Marching into the detention area is not exactly what I had in mind," Richie says with an eyebrow raise, to indicate his confusion with Bill's logic.

"But they're going to kill him!"

"Better him than me, buckaroo," Richie says with a bit of malice. Richie had endured enough during his life to know that risking your own life for another didn't always turn out in your favor. He doesn't think it's okay to leave the prince to die, but he doesn't know if he is willing to die just to be the good guy.

Bill sighs in an exasperated tone, clearly frustrated with having to deal with Tozier as well. Suddenly, he whips around with a devious smile on his face.

"You're in this for the money, right?"

"Well it's a pretty good motivator, kid."

"Listen, if you were to rescue him the reward would be..."

"What?"

"Well, more wealth than you could imagine!"

"I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit."

"Just trust me on this."

"You better be right, kid."

Bill and Richie devise a plan to bind Chewbacca's hands and pretend he is a prisoner, as C-3PO and R2-D2 stay behind in the security room, instructing them about the logistics of the ship from a comlink. The two men lead the wookie through the halls of the space station, keeping up the act of simply being stormtroopers. Richie knows that thinking this will work out flawlessly is wishful thinking, but he can't imagine how this mission could get that much worse. 

They enter the prison block and are met by three imperial guards.

The leader of the group raises his eyebrows in suspicion of the odd newcomers,"Where are you taking this...thing?"

Bill picks up on the act right away, "Prisoner transfer from cell block 1138."

The guard seems to believe Bill at first, but then quickly says, "I wasn't notified. I'll have to clear it." He turns to look through his system and contact someone in charge and the other two guards begin to approach the so called prisoner. 

Suddenly, Chewbacca breaks free of his handcuffs and flings one of the guards across the room with incredible strength. Richie and Bill pick up right away and continue with the act of the crazed prisoner.

Richie shouts, "Look out! He's loose!" while simultaneously blasting the two other guards in the room. Once the guards are taken care of, the group continues to black down any security software installed in the room. 

After all of the firing has come to a halt, the room is still ablaze with flashing lights and sirens coming from the command panel. 

"We gotta find out which cell this prince of yours is in," Richie says, acting quickly to look for the location, "here it is: 2187."

With the newfound information, Bill sprint down the hallway in search of the cell. Richie stays back to deal with the alarm system from the control board. Richie's smart ass exterior quickly rubs off as he panics to deal with the situation at hand.

He approaches the com system and stumbles through his report, "...Uh...everything's under control. Situation normal."

"What happened?" A voice crackles through the system.

"Uh...had a slight weapon malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly alright now. We're fine...uh...we're all fine here...now. Uh...how are you?" Richie cringes at himself from his poor choice of words. He knows that he just fucked them over even more. 

"We're sending a squad up."

"Uh negative! negative! That won't be necessary. It's not quite safe to come up here yet. I don't think that's a good idea," Richie panics.

"Who is this? What's your operating number?" The voice demands.

Richie fumbles with that question and decides on picking up his blaster instead and blasting the com system to put the conversation to rest.

"Boring conversation anyway," Richie harshly jokes to himself before yelling down the hall, "Bill, we're going to have company!"

 

* * *

 

 Prince Eddie is brought back to reality from his cell door sliding open. He had previously decided to let himself rest and close his eyes for a little bit after he had been badly tortured by his captors. Sleeping on a cold, hard, slab of rock wasn't the best way to ride off his high, but anything was better than feeling excruciating pain.

Truthfully, Eddie's heart skipped a beat when the trooper entered his cell. He knew that Vader was either going to torture him further or get rid of him since he wasn't helping the Empire out in any way. When the trooper walks in, Eddie is very worn out but still ready to fight for his life. But instead of being met with a stone cold clone, the trooper seems to hesitate for a second. He shuffles around almost humanistically and Eddie somehow has a feeling that this isn't the typical soldier. 

"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" Eddie sasses as he lays femininely upon his bed. 

The trooper seems a bit taken aback and confused before shaking his head and pulling off his helmet. Beneath the suit is a regular man around the same age as Eddie. Eddie is in no way attracted to this man, but he can tell that the man is someone Eddie could easily look up to and admire. He has reddish brown hair that's swept to the side but had been tussled by his helmet. He has fairly long features with a wide set jawline. The man looks confident, scared, and confused all at once. 

"I'm Bill Denbrough. I'm here to rescue you."

Eddie begins to sit up a bit, but still refuses to trust this random guy, "You're who?"

"I'm here to rescue you. I've got your R2 unit. I'm here with Mike Hanlon."

With that name, Eddie shoots up from his spot on the bed. "Mike Hanlon? Where is he?" Eddie rapidly questions.

Bill doesn't offer answer, but instead ushers Eddie out of the room, "Come on!"

The two rush down the hall towards the main exit but stop in their steps when they hear a commotion coming from the elevator. Two other figures stand in the room with Eddie and Bill. One of them being a large wookie with a blaster in hand, but the other man seems to grab even more attention than the creature. The other guy is also dressed in a trooper uniform but had removed his helmet. Eddie automatically notices the man's height and lengthy figure. All of his facial features are sharp and prominent from his cheekbones, to his nose, and to his jawline. He works quickly to blast the incoming Imperial guards that had blasted into the room.

Eddie and Bill back further down the hall to retreat from the line of fire, but Eddie can't help but be mesmerized by the stranger. He works with the wookie as a team to take down the troopers that seem to be flooding into the room. They back their way down the hallway to meet up with Eddie and Bill. Eddie is harshly brought out of his daydream when he suddenly realizes that his so-called saviors are just as lost and confused as he is.

The four of them run further down the hall while the troopers seem to slow down in their advance. 

"Can't get out that way," the man says matter-of-factly, as if this isn't a huge problem.

"Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route," Eddie decides to snap at the man for his mistake.

"Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness?" The man quickly sasses back.

Before Eddie can continue with the inappropriately timed banter, a blast comes barreling down the hallway towards their heads and the group is reminded of their present danger. The four of them hug the wall and hide behind a slight lip of the infrastructure, both of the strangers blasting back at the troopers. 

Bill tries to contact the droids but quickly declares, "There isn't any other way out!" while getting out his own blaster too.

The handsome man continues to fight off the troopers while yelling, "I can't hold 'em off forever! Now what?"

Eddie turns to the stranger and sasses, "This is some rescue. You came in here, but you didn't have a plan for getting out?"

"He's the brains, sweetheart!" The man sasses back.

With that comment, Eddie grabs the blaster from Bill's hands and shoots at a nearby grate to a garbage shoot.

"What the hell are you doing?" The man rushingly yells.

Eddie jumps out from the wall with the blaster still in hand and says, "Somebody has to save our skins!" As he crosses the short distance to the grate, he blasts down the hall at more of the troopers.

"Into the garbage shoot, fly boy!" Eddie says to the man before quickly squeezing through the now open grate.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of the dialogue is going to be almost word for word from the movie at first because I need to get the storyline across and actually have it make sense. In the next chapter it will be more in depth when I can actually grow on the relationship between Eddie and Richie.
> 
> Also I did so much fucking research to make sure the intro chapter actually fit in with the story line of A New Hope but honestly I loved it. It was so much fun.


End file.
